


briar patch

by atramento



Series: must be dreaming [1]
Category: Final Fantasy Tactics
Genre: Awkward Romance, Canon Compliant, During Canon, F/M, Fist Fights, Flowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24803125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atramento/pseuds/atramento
Summary: Tietra loses a keepsake but gains the awkward aid of a spiteful nobleling.
Relationships: Tietra Heiral/Argath Thadalfus
Series: must be dreaming [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887547
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Crown of Violets](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/634912) by Jaydee_Faire. 



Argath had become familiar with the pathways of Eagrose Castle within the second hour of Ramza and Delita having departed without. He patrolled them as dutifully as any man of the watch would have-- except Argath also had the luxury of being able to pause and admire the natural scenery. 

The most favored spot was currently the entrance where he could study the whirls of water flushing out from the annals of the castle into the town’s channels. Gurgling, struggling pools that churned with an internal conflict only a reservoir could achieve. There was some poetic peace to be found in that view, a peace Argath sought out. 

He was closing his eyes and pretending that Lake Poescas sounded this vibrant when a distinct higher peal sounded above the water. 

...Perhaps he had imagined it though? He was alone, of that he was fairly certain. No animal would be foolish enough to traipse into the hallowed halls of men. Argath’s eyes lucidly trailed around in the semi-darkness, searching for any sight or trace of another’s presence. His eyes were answered with a large, struggling form amid the waters. “What in...” 

If he squinted, Argath could see a hand splashing and hair billowing. “Oh... oh no...” Argath’s feet were already racing off the entrance down to the level of the water’s edge. Without hesitation he kicked off into the stream, paddling towards the person he saw in the water. 

She was not doing a very good job of staying afloat and clung to Argath as soon as he was visible through her dark hair. The two drifted a little longer before Argath dug both sets of his fingers into the bank and started to pull him and his rescue out. His arms wobbled and more than once he nearly dropped himself and the girl back into the water-- but gradually his cadet training kicked in and Argath towed the two of them out of harm’s path. 

“What were you doing in there?!” Argath’s chastising went unanswered initially as the girl crawled off of him onto her knees, coughing up some of the channel’s water and dropping what she had in her hand. He recognized it as a standard text for academia of a kind, but which specific one he was entirely uncertain of. “Well?” 

She panted with the effort of expelling a few final rivulets of water, only pausing to brush back soaked strands of brunette hair. Argath’s gaze widened a bit. He recognized that long, plain hair-- as well as her mottled lavender shirt and clinging skirts. “S-sorry, ser...” Now he was certain who this waterlogged maiden was. 


	2. Chapter 2

“....Your brother wouldn’t have been pleased to see you nearly drowned, Miss Heiral.” Argath admonished a bit more softly this time. Tietra gasped and looked over at her savior.   
  
“Lord Thadalfus! I... I am terribly sorry... your armor... all the cloth a-and leather is... soaked...” She started to reach out to touch a part of said armor but seemed to think better, withdrawing her hand before the fingers even grazed him. And whilst he appreciated the ‘lord’ titling he had more questions at the moment than answers-- which never bode well for Argath. 

“Have you no escort? No sense of how late it is now, Miss Heiral?” Blonde brows furrowed at the lady beside him. She sat down and looked away. The two are present this way for a few moments of silence; Argath sat with his arms propping him up, legs sprawled loosely. Tietra, still sitting on her knees but in a more proper posing. Looking away from the sole presence beside her. If it were daylight, or perhaps a less dour man than Argath, this might have tended more towards a romantic scene. 

The reality is less so. Tietra began sobbing softly as her response. She cupped her face into her hands, shuddering lightly with more than just a few repressed instances of misery. 

Argath was unsure of how to proceed. He has really only dealt with the fragile emotions of a woman wounded once-- when his mother mourned and wailed from the side of a sad little gravestone. Hesitantly he plucked the book from beside her and flipped it open carelessly. “This is yours?” 

Tietra looked up from her wallowing, studied the book with drenched and puffing grey eyes. “Y-yes... It is the text required of all young ladies at the Preparatory...” However she made no effort to take the book back from Argath, which struck him as odd until he remembered their separate positions in life. A lady, much less a lowborn one, would not dare to try something so presumptuous.

Instead he handed it back. “You would suffer the risk of death for a _text_?” Argath was unused to his tone affecting someone so greatly and thus had to watch as Tietra released another welling of tears he did not know she had. 

“N-not just the text. Though it is...” Tietra swallowed. “...Important.” Her hands fumbled with the book a moment but Argath could see she had a particular page in mind. His curiosity got the best of him-- he saw her expression droop as she stopped upon one such page to see nothing but words and soaked corners of the paper. 

“No... no no no no!” Another flip through the book. “Nooo!” Her despondency might have amused Argath at any other time of day; but in the quiet still of nightfall... it was sad.


	3. Chapter 3

Tietra looked over at Argath, tears welling up and sliding down her already soaked face. “....I... I don’t suppose you saw a flower in the water, d-did you?” Argath shook his head slowly. Were he a more crass-minded young man-- or at the least, one with more of a penchant for mischief-- he would have made any number of comments about young women and losing their flowers. As it was, Argath was simply too dull to conjure any such imagery.

“Oohhhhh...” Tietra moaned, cupping her face into her hands. “Noooo....” Argath sighed and got up. He looked about the area, then at the canal, and finally back to Tietra. She was still crying and still alone, save his presence.

He offered her a hand slowly, his muddy gloved fingers stretching out just into her vision. Another poorly stifled shuddering before his gesture caught notice, causing Tietra to look up at Argath pitifully. “What...?” Argath raised his brow and moved his hand again. 

“You lost a flower? Let us go to pick one and replace it.” Tietra’s eyes widened and she shook her head as rapid as her soaked hair would allow. “No?” 

“That flower... it was special!” 

“Flowers aren’t special, they grow aplenty across the fields, in the grounds of men--” She made another strangled sound and got to her feet. He blinked at Tietra and her almost furious expression. 

Argath’s hand was still outstretched but he had forgotten the gesture until Tietra gently took it into one of her own and startled him. Her hand was cold and shaking lightly, still covered in beads of canal water. If he had not been wearing his gloves, he could have also viewed how pale and calloused his hand compared to hers. 

“I appreciate your gesture, Lord Thadalfus. I truly do. But that flower was a gift from my father.... I was always his little wildflower, he said.” She looked away, hand still shaking loosely in Argath’s. 

Argath’s brows drew together in a deep impression and his grip tightened around her hand. Not enough to hurt her, but enough that she looked up in surprise. “Miss Tietra... I cannot replace your flower. But I _can_ ask once more what in the gods’ eyes were you doing in that canal.” 

Tietra’s grey eyes did not founder from Argath. He found he could not look away either. It was intense, intimidating for the both of them when it did not need to be. 

“I.... I was...” She swallowed. “I was being pushed in, Lord Thadalfus.” 

His jaw clenched suddenly as a ridge of anger coiled tightly somewhere in his spine. “L-Lord Thadalfus? Ah!” Tietra startled as he yanked his hand away and turned to the direction he had seen her come floating in the water. 

Tietra was no noblewoman, of that he remembered each and every day he marched up and down Eagrose’s stones. But no lady deserved such cruelty, such ill treatment in Argath Thadalfus’s eyes, not even a common-born one. “What do you hope to achieve?!” Tietra’s near hysterical voice came from just behind him. “That’s two to one, Lord Thadalfus! Three if you count Murienne!” 

“ _I rather like those odds_.” Argath growled from between his teeth.


	4. Chapter 4

He found the offending lot laughing and talking among themselves towards where the water filtered in from the north garrison into Eagrose proper. Two young men wearing the insignias of the Military Akademy and the one girl, Murienne, wearing Preparatory appropriate dress. They looked up when they heard Argath stomping and Tietra’s timid yet still loud footsteps behind him crunching on gravel. 

The one man, his fair face dotted with freckles, laughed through his teeth like a hiss. “Abel, look-- the timid flower girl returns to us with her lord protector! Haven’t had enough, have you girl?” Abel, the other man with dark coiffed hair, guffaws at his friend’s comment. 

“Leave her out of this. I take issue with you myself!” Argath sneered, pointing at the group. “Someone should teach you lot of respect for your betters.” Tietra, despite being a commoner, was still a member of House Beoulve. And that made her ‘better’ than this lot. That’s what Argath told himself, why he was doing this.

Abel piped up. “Oh, and are you to teach us manners then, _my lord_?” He did a mocking bow towards Argath. Argath who then promptly lunged and socked Abel hard enough for him to fall back nearly into the canal. 

Tietra gasped and held her hands to her mouth, repressing the urge to cheer the young lordling on. There was still Abel’s friend Eadbert and Murienne after all. 

Eadbert indeed succeeded a blow to Argath’s face. That was going to bruise later... Eadbert was the stronger of the two men after all. Tietra watched Argath grapple and kick with the two men, and watched Abel get knocked on his ass consistently by Argath’s heavy-hammed fists. It was... sort of exhilarating knowing that they were, that _Argath_ was fighting because of her. It felt a little empowering even. She let out a high cheer when Argath knocked Abel finally out for the count, hopping up and down a little.

Now it was the two remaining men, with Murienne and Tietra on opposing ends. The men circled one another, coiled and dangerous like coeurls ready to kill. Eadbert was no longer smiling, grim-faced as Argath now. It felt as though it would go on for eternity-- until Eadbert broke the tension springing forward toward Argath.

Argath ducked low and kicked Eadbert’s feet from under him, getting grazed by the fist swung regardless and cursing when it still hit hard enough for him to bite his tongue and to draw blood from his nose.

Tietra winced as he drew his foot back and squarely kicked Eadbert between the legs. “And _stay down_ , cur.” Argath spat to the whimpering, curled up squire. He was about to turn to face Tietra when she yelled at him. 

“Lord Thadalfus! Murienne!” He spun around in the barest amount of time to grab the offending lady’s arm, a knife clutched tightly in her fist that was coming straight for him. Murienne’s eyes widened and she dropped said knife as Argath’s hand tightened its already painful grip upon her wrist. 

“You wouldn’t do harm to a lady, w-would you my lord?” Murienne flashed her prettiest smile and yet Argath looked at her as if she were an ugly beggar. 

He pushed her hard enough for her to stumble back into the canal with a loud splash and scream. “You are no lady I have ever seen.” The blonde huffed finally. Tietra then started to make her way over, filled with an emotion she could not quite describe proper. Elation? Fear? It was quite neither of those things...

"You... you fought for me..." She smiled faintly at Argath, who was looking out behind her. “That was rather... sweet of you, even if completely unnecessary...” 

Argath’s eyes lowered to her finally as the sound of more yelling came from the castle. “Huh? Oh... yes... think naught of it Miss Tietra. That was your flower. Clearly it meant something to you. And it--” He stopped, eyes widened, as Tietra bent up to kiss him on the cheek. “It...” He gaped. 

He could only stare blankly as adults-- most likely guards-- rushed out to inspect just what the hell had happened here. And he stared at Tietra as the guards led all of them back into Eagrose Castle proper. The scolding was going to be fierce but looking at Tietra’s smiling face? 

Something told Argath it was going to be worth that. Worth more, even. 


	5. Chapter 5

Argath's eye was darkly blemished when he approached Tietra the next day. Seemed Eadbert had left his mark upon his fellow lordling, blotched purple and distended.

His expression itself was grim yet laced with a sort of puppy-like eagerness that Tietra failed to notice at first. Mainly because he thrust his balled fist at her and she winced, reasonably expecting him to throw a sudden punch. 

It took her a moment to realize he was holding a single dandelion in his fist, clenched tightly by the root. “I... I know it is not  _ your  _ wildflower. But... I picked the brightest, best flower I could find.” Argath rubbed the back of his head with his other hand. He clearly was strained to have found this for her, searching any number of roadsides only to pluck out a weed from the myriad of flowers present. 

Regardless, Tietra smiled. She had no inkling of how much trouble Argath had gotten into for fighting her bullies nor the longer reaching consequences, but she appreciated all of this effort being made in her name. It felt.... nice, she supposed. “Thank you, Lord Thadalfus.” She reached for the dandelion and he recoiled slightly. 

“Argath...” The blonde muttered before opening his palm to let her take the flower proper. “Call me Argath, I ask you.” 

Her fingertips grazed Argath’s palm to take the flower away. “Alright, Argath... as you would have it.” Tietra smiled up at her new friend. 


End file.
